Element

VR – “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”

Description

In groups the students have to communicate and collaborate in order to be able to defuse a bomb by disarming all its modules before its countdown timer has expired.

Comments (Media, special considerations etc.)

Remember to film all parts!

Target group

9^th and 10^th grade

Setting

Learning goals

To communicate and collaborate in English

To improve their English language skills, their vocabulary and fluency.

Subject

English Teaching

Method: Game and activity

VR – “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”

Introduction:
 (It was very important to me to give the students the correct introduction, so they felt confident playing the game and wouldn’t back out of it, if they e.g. thought it seemed to difficult)

• First, I described the game
• Goal: To defuse a bomb by disarming all its modules before its countdown timer had expired
• Then I showed them the manual
• I explained that they should work in groups of 4 – and by communicating and collaborating they should guide the person with the VR glasses so he or she would be capable of defusing the bomb
• Then I showed the students a bit of the video on YouTube, so they could see what the bomb and some of the modules looked like
• We agreed that the first sessions should be in Danish until they felt confident about playing the game and then they could switch to English

GETTING STARTED:
1. Level: First session:

·         In groups of 4 the students chose the person, who should wear the VR glasses.

·         I showed “The player” how to use the remote control and guided her through the manual to the first task, called “The first bomb”.

·          The other students had a look at the manual and chose a module each to focus on during the process.

·         We jumped into the game and I joined the group and if needed explained to them what to do and how to use the manual in order to disarm the modules.

·         After 3 sessions they felt confident about the game and knew how to play it. They were ready to play the game on their own and I left the group.

·         The played the game 3 times before switching into English.

2. Level: Second session:

·         In groups of 4 the students should jump to the next level and defuse the bomb called “Something old and something new”.

·         As a pre task each of the group members should describe the keypads in the module “On the Subject of Keypads”.

·         The goal with this task was to find a common language in the group, since each person describes and compares the keypads individually and to be able to find the correct keypad in the manual– the group members had to understand the  description and the symbols the player e.g. compared the keypads to.

Evaluation

·         The students were very positive about the game. They thought it was great fun and they all managed to defuse “The first bomb” approximately 3 times both in Danish and English.

·         Many of them realized that it wasn’t that difficult to play the game in English because of the manual written in English.

·         Having played the first session, the students found it very useful to work with the module called “On the Subject of Keypads” by describing the keypads individually in the groups in order to get a common language which would improve the process when trying to disarm the module.

·         The students enjoyed playing the game at level 2 and they managed to defuse the bomb two times in English.